OB LA DI, OB LA DA, LIFE GOES ON

Unless it doesn’t.  And for thousands of Americans every year, life won’t go on, if Republicans succeed at repealing Obamacare/ACA.  They clearly have no viable plan to replace Obamacare, and what’s worse, they don’t want to replace it.  All that is par for the course, more or less what they said they’d do when they got the opportunity. 

But even though they made no secret of their hatred for Obamacare, I’ve still been surprised at how much Republicans seem to relish the process of destroying the Affordable Care Act, and as much other social progress as possible while they control the levers of power.  Republicans are just plain mean. 

That same sick glee has characterized everything Republicans have done since the election, all the way from Trump, Ryan and McConnell at the top, down through local yokels at the state and county levels.  Trump appoints manifestly corrupt and/or incompetent people to senior Cabinet positions.  Further down the food chain, minor functionaries threaten members of the press and government officials for perceived slights against the Dear Leader, propose legislation that would make it legal to “accidentally” use your car to run over anti-Trump protestors (in North Dakota), and proclaim that it’s OK to pinch women’s crotches as a way of settling political arguments (in Connecticut).  

During the election campaign, some Republicans at least pretended to be outraged by Trump’s personal behavior.  In October, Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz said he couldn’t look his 15 year old daughter in the eye if he supported Trump.  Apparently he’s decided that avoiding his daughter’s gaze for the next four years is doable, because now he’s not only supporting Trump, but threatening the Director of the Office of Government Ethics for daring to look into the Russian election tampering.

And speaking of Russia, it wasn’t that long ago when Republicans loudly and proudly hated Russia.  They’d have been apoplectic if a President had lavished praise on a Russian dictator.  It’s both amusing and disconcerting to watch them shrug as Donald Trump embraces Vladimir Putin and trashes NATO.   For the GOP, Trump trumps everything.  He’s like heroin to Republicans.  They’ll turn their back on every principle they’ve ever had in order to get more of him.  As that Connecticut crotch-grabber said:  “I love this new world.  I no longer have to be politically correct.”

That’s Trump’s true gift to Republicans.  They no longer have to pretend to be decent human beings.  Trump has given them permission to be racist, sexist, and corrupt, which is apparently what they’ve wanted all along.

Now we see the Republican id on full display.  They’re acting like teenagers, so full of raging hormones that they can’t think straight.  And they’re making strategic blunders.   If Republicans were smart, they’d move a little slower, making a show of being calm and judicious as they do their dirty work.   Instead, they’re overplaying their hand, and they look petty and vindictive rather than statesmanlike.  It’ll come back to haunt them.

As I keep repeating, Trump lost the popular vote, and in the two months since the election, he’s been losing, rather than gaining support in the polls.  The pre-Peegate polls show his popularity at somewhere between 37%-44%.  That’s the lowest level of support the public opinion polls have ever measured for an incoming President. 

Ominously for Republicans in Congress, voters are finally beginning to grasp the implications of trashing Obamacare.  In Aurora, CO, last week, Republican Congressman Mike Coffman was so spooked when a large and skeptical crowd at his town hall meeting insisted on asking about his plan for replacing Obamacare that he left early, ducking ignominiously out of a side door.

On Saturday, just in time for the MLK holiday weekend, Trump insulted Congressman John Lewis, hero of the civil rights movement.  The blowback included a huge upsurge of interest in Lewis’ three graphic novels on the history of the Civil Rights movement, pushing them to the top three positions on Amazon’s best seller list.

And Monday brought word that Monica Crowley, Fox commentator and Trump’s choice for the position of senior director of Strategic Communications for the National Security Council, has withdrawn in the wake of multiple credible accusations of plagiarism in her published work.  When CNN broke the story, Trump’s people were defiant, portraying Crowley’s critics as liberal culture warriors and saying they wouldn’t back down.  And then they backed down.

Those are victories.  There will be more, along with inevitable setbacks.  As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "If you can't fly then run. If you can't run then walk. If you can't walk then crawl...whatever you do you have to keep moving forward"